I have a R.A.T. 9, and after a few days of adjustment I really like it.

It has several different palm rests, pinkie-side panels (including one with a pinkie rest), two different thumb rests, and the thumb and palm rests are both adjustable forward/back for palm and in/out for thumb. The weight is also quite changeable.

I've heard horror stories of poor build/reliability, but mine has been fine for the umm.. 9 months? I've had it. My only gripe is battery life. It comes with 2 batteries you can swap in about 10 seconds, but be ready to swap them pretty much every day.

I used to work at Game Crazy about 10 years ago (for about 3 years). I used to talk people out of buying third party controllers - PARTICULARLY Mad Catz. I sold a ton of first party controllers and saved a lot of customers.

Although my real motive was that I didn't want to deal with the inevitable attempt at returning it for being defective, when in fact that's how all their controllers work. "The buttons aren't as good or responsive as the controller that came with my system", "The joystick(s) have a dead zone", "it makes a creaking noise when I hold it firmly". These were all actual complaints.

Some companies do make good 3rd party controllers. Mad Catz was never one of them.

IIRC, MadCatz was the cheapest 3rd party stuff about 10 years ago - it's just like when people ask me to fix their $300 Dell for them, and they're all surprised it broke after 2 years. You buy cheap, and that's exactly what you get.

The have an MLG licensed controller for ps3 and 360, not cheap to start with, but it all comes apart and you can buy replacement joysticks, abxy, and d-pads if any of them happen to go out. Plus it's set up to be able to have 360 or ps3 joystick setups by swapping the left one and the d-pad.

I know that everyone has been saying this, but the controllers are actually INCREDIBLY similar in size. A couple millimeters difference.

DualShock 3: 160 mm × 97 mm × 55 mm

DualShock 4: 162 mm × 98 mm × 52 mm

The real difference is that they moved around the parts of the controller.

You can see in the OP's image that the buttons/triggers on the top of the controller are no longer extended out by that little bridge, and that the buttons/dpad areas are actually bumped right up there with them. This makes a lot more room for the two analog sticks, which it is somewhat hard to see in the image but if you look at the DualShock 3, the button area intersects with the analog stick circle, whereas on the DualShock 4, the two have separate but touching complete circles.

These two changes allowed Sony to extend out the handles of the controller and help out all those people who felt the DualShock 3 was a but small and cramped in layout.

Also slightly hard to see is that the handles are not at such a wide angle on the DualShock 4 as they are on the DualShock 3, so most of the width in the controller is through the controller itself, not the handles. It remains to be seen whether this is solves the "thumbs touching when using the analog sticks" problem that Xbox players seem to think is an issue, but the center area of the controller does appear to be much wider.

But it IS bigger, at least in the way that it feels. They longitudinal dimensions may be almost the same, but the thing isn't a cube. The physical size doesnt really have as much bearing as how big it 'feels' . This image makes it a bit more clear. As you can see with the larger handles the controller will take up more more hand space.

Agreed. Played it on the show floor this afternoon (Knack). Feels much more substantial than the DS3, with an appealingly textured surface. Triggers have a bit more play too. Only 10 mins in hand so far, but really liked the feel of it.

How big are your hands from the bottom of your palm to the tip of your middle finger? Mine are 8.25", and I have absolutely no problem holding the PS3 controller. I'm guessing you try to palm the handles, instead of grip them with your fingers?

I don't have anything handy to measure with but i do try to grip the handles but with the size of my hands the handles end up just sitting in the middle of my palm, i do grip them with my fingers but its kinda cramped.

I've grown up with Playstation and it was fine when i was younger but sadly the controllers just didnt grow with my hands lol, I've never been an Xbox gamer but never really liked their controller scheme or design so i for one am quite excited for Dualshock 4.

The one thing that bothers me about switching controllers from xbox to playstation is the location of the left thumbstick. When I hold any controller my thumbs automatically move to the position of the xbox controller. But growing up with Playstation 1 and 2 I'm sure it won't be that big a deal

I always played PS1 and 2, then switched to 360 about 5-6 years ago like you, and just purchased a PS3 a few weeks ago. I was accustomed to the controller almost instantly, and now I have a hard time playing 360 because the controller feels too big and clunky. It felt natural with the PS3 controller, although it being a bit bigger couldn't hurt.

how about getting used to the position of the "X" button? I can just imagine a QTE now. after years of training my brain to instinctively recognize the X-button as the one on the left, now I will have to re-train my brain into realizing X is on the bottom.

If you've been playing video games for a while (and don't stick with a single game), you're already used to swapping what buttons do what action as you switch between games. Changing consoles takes a bit longer than changing games, because instead of changing what actions are mapped to what buttons, you're changing what buttons are mapped to what physical movement. For me, it took about three weeks, and now I swap between my 360 and PS3 easily.

I can confirm, when my 360 controller stopped on me in the middle of a CoD 4 match I was actually doing good in (I was somewhat new to FPS games), I smashed it on the ground, and it just bounced back with a small crack. It took 4 or 5 poundings to smash it, and by then, I was just even more angry at the fact that it wouldn't fucking break.

I meant to put stopped working, as in it just completely died, wouldn't even work when it was being charged. I guess I forgot a word which made me sound like an angry man child. I wouldn't have broken it if it wasn't already broken.

Has Sony stated whether you will be able to use the new controller with PS3? I think it would be awesome if Sony actually began selling the controllers this summer ahead of the console's launch. This would not allow you to get accustom to the larger size but it would definitely throw even more positive buzz towards them as well.

Is it really much bigger? The handle which sits into the palm looks a little longer and the middle is certainly thicker with the touchpad but it really doesn't look much bigger to me. The shoulder buttons are more compact and the sticks still look close enough together that you'd still hit your thumbs together when playing like every PS controller since they added sticks. I welcome the size increase but would have liked to see more.

I've never really had a problem with the controller size. For me, the issue has been that the analog sticks begin to give out quicker than those on the Xbox controllers. Maybe it's just me, but I always seem to need to replace my PS controllers because the sticks decide they aren't in the center of their dead space anymore.

My three major concerns with the playstation controllers were the convex sticks, the small structure, and the stick placement. I was already used to the xbox controller, so at least they changed 2 out of 3 of my concerns. After using the PS4 controller for a while, muscle memory will kick in and the stick placement won't be a problem.

I actually think it won't be long before you get used to the joystick position, your thumbs will be symmetrical (I think this 'cause I played the piano for 8+ years and playing symmetricaly seemed to be more natural from the start)

Why can't they just switch the Dpad and left stick positions and then I would have ZERO issues ditching MS for good. But jesus, the 360 controller is basically the perfect form factor, hard to give up.

I've always been an Xbox gamer, so the PS controllers have always felt a bit... off. They're not impossible to use, they just felt "wrong" when I tried to use them in the past. Earlier this afternoon I played Blacklight:Retribution at the Sony booth at E3, and I was incredibly impressed with how comfortable the controller felt. It really felt like an extension of my hand, rather than some awkward shape I was trying to hold.